“Footnote,” a new novelette by Mel Trent

Writer and “Filthy Piker” Mel Trent recently had her new novelette, “Footnote” (2009), published in serial format on the website of Piker Press, “a weekly journal for arts, sciences, fiction and non-fiction, featuring a wide array of literature, from humor to drama." Rated PG-13 but with frequent use of the F-word, here are the opening lines of “Footnote”:

They came to Mars from Gurstock as the latter planet disintegrated in waves of nuclear blasts. Gurstock had been an old, cold, dying planet, but the people had long ago learned to thwart their own deaths. Their home died, yet they lived on. A massive miscalculation in the sinking of nuclear reactors into the core of the planet hastened its end. The Gurstockians didn't seem to mind. They piled into their ships and headed to Mars.

Mel Trent lives in North Carolina and has written poetry, fiction and anime reviews for Piker Press.